Work Text:
There is no greater struggle in life than the task of helping with homework. Wrestling with a kid for hours to grasp the concept of a topic sentence; racking your brain to remember math you've long since forgotten; staying up late to help a kid glue a diarama together for a science fair they were absolutly going to lose; it was enough to make a person to take a short walk into the void of space.
Askeladd was half considering just locking the next person they needed tortured in a room with Thorfinn before a big math test for a few hours, and seeing how long it took for them to crack. The only thing holding him back from enacting his plan was that Thorfinn would probably refuse to let the prisoner help out of spite and then Askeladd would be stuck dealing with the fallout.
"Alright what's it today," Askeladd clapped his hands, looking down at the scowling face of his youngest crew member. "Need me to hold your hand through basic addition?" He laughed at his own joke.
Thorfinn's face tightened like he'd been sucking a limon, but he managed to grunt out, "History test."
Huh. It must be more serious than Askeladd thought. Usually Thorfinn put up way more of a fight before accepting Askeladd's help. A better man would stop teasing the boy and get straight to work.
But Askeladd was not a better man.
"What's this? Thorfinn is struggling with history? After deliberately ignoring me every time I tried to teach it to him? It's almost like he's experiencing consequences to his actions!"
"Shut up! Your teaching is shit. Nothing you talk about comes up on tests."
"Well that's just rude." Askeladd sighed. "Makes me wonder why I put in all the effort. Maybe you should go run to Bjorn instead."
"Maybe I will!" Thorfinn snapped back, jumping to his feet. This effect was somewhat ruined by the fact that he was not much taller than when he'd been sitting down. Ever the scrawny runt.
Askeladd raised an eyebrow and waited. They both knew Thorfinn wasn't going anywhere. Not for history.
Askeladd had not, initally, helped Thorfinn with his homework. In fact when Thorfinn was first enrolled in school, as per the laws of the Galactic empire, he'd hoped it's uncompromising schedule would keep Thorfinn off of his ship. Missing the first and last part of the year to join the summer raiding party wouldn't go over with any school, and they'd doubtlessly insisted he stay on Planet Gorm. He'd be free one murder happy kitten getting underfoot, and Thorfinn would be trapped in Gorm's School system learning his ABCs. Or so he thought.
But being the nephew of the leader of an entire planet had its downsides. Namely that certain kissup teachers and staff might decide to adjust Thorfinn's schedule so he could spend his time in the late spring and early fall online, and transition to in-person in the winter months when the crew rested in the village. Anything for the kid Askeladd was enrolling.
Sometimes he was just too popular.
The result of this had been Thorfinn going to school on the ship. Which meant when he'd had problems with said school work on the ship, there was nowhere to go to avoid the tantrums that would follow. It didn't help that Thorfinn was far to stubborn, keeping at a problem he didn't understand while letting out frustrated yells long into the night.
Eventually in the interest of his crew's functionality, he'd had to step in and try to tutor the kid. It had been an uphill battle, but after four years, Askeladd had to admit he was a little proud.
Of himself. For surviving it.
"What time period is the test over?" Askeladd asked after Thorfinn calmed down.
"First Space Age." Thorfinn grunted.
"That's not hard," Askeladd said, flipping open the review sheet, "Everyone knows about the First Space Age." Or thought they did. Funny how much propaganda the Danes could shove into their history classes. Anything to justify their betrayal.
"Here's an easy one." Askeladd's finger stopped on a line. "What does DANE stand for in the DANE Project?"
"Durability, Agility, and Neuroility Evolution Project."
"Neurological Evolution Project." Askeladd corrected. "And do you know why they chose to use this term for our empire even to this day?"
His mother had told him it was because the scientist who first created the DANEs was Danish himself, and wanted the project's name to reflect his homeland. But that detail, along with the entire planet it hailed from, was long destroyed. No one bothered to remember the names of the insignificant countries on the long forgotten planet of Earth.
As if to prove his point, Thorfinn answered, "because they were the first to go to space," with a roll of his eyes. Not a thought to the world that came before. "Can we move on now?"
"Maybe if you could get the answer right." Askeladd said. Technically, it was good enough for a test, but Askeladd was overcome with a longing to speak the truth, forgotten though it was. That someone might hear and remember it. "DANEs weren't the first to go to space. Humans were. DANEs were only the first synthetics sent out to explore the galaxy."
A foolish move. Creating a race of beings stronger than them and then sending them out to explore, believing they'd remain loyal. Oh how his ancestors had paid for that naivety.
Thorfinn looked unimpressed. "Humans don't count. They didn't colonize the planets. And they're not around anymore besides. The DANEs were the real ones who conquered the galaxy for our use."
There was pride in Thorfinn's voice, back straight, synthetic eyes shining and far to detailed to be anything but unnerving to look into. You'd never tell he wasn't human. Not really. But then again, in this age who was? In this vast universe, only a handful of true humans remained.
Askeladd would know. His mother was one.
"Wrong again," he crowed, feeling petty. "The terraformers went first. You'd know them as the people of the Anglo and Saxon systems. They made the galaxy livable for all lifeforms. the Dane may have found the new locations, but it was they who made those locations livable."
Their alliance had not been long. Soon the DANEs would covet the land the terraformers had created and turn on their kin, synthetic vs synthetic, seeking their wealth for themselves. But it still lasted long enough to colonize the galaxy.
Long enough to turn on the humans.
"That's not what the textbook says," Thorfinn frowned, looking from his review sheet to his open history book. "It just talks about how DANE strength led to our victory over the galaxy."
"Textbooks aren't always right," Askeladd placed a hand on Thorfinn's shoulder. "You've got to learn to read between the lines of propaganda."
He doubted even textbooks in the Anglo or Saxon systems would reference the war against humanity, where the created turned on their creator. To much bloodshed for a people group that identified themselves as humble followers of the Gentle Shepherd God.
No, it was only the humans who remembered, the last survivors of the slaughter, eeking out a living atop the backs of the Great Space Whales who were their only shelter. They'd made it work, even raising kingdoms upon the different whale's backs. But the great works of science and art they'd accomplished were far behind them.
Only record keepers like his mother remembered them, spending their whole lives devoted to learning one important piece of the old knowledge so that it might be passed on. Living time capsules, each and every one of them.
Not that knowledge of Earth's legends did his mother any good while enslaved.
"I'm being tested on the textbook, not what's between the lines," Thorfinn said, breaking Askeladd from his thoughts. "I don't need to know what it's not saying. I just need to pass."
Typical Danish answer. Askeladd's upper lip curled into a sneer. Keeping himself blind to the truth, content to live believing himself a superior being, when he was only the descendant of a lab experiment that turned on its makers. Just the same as the rest of the Vikings, whose synthetic hearts longed only for destruction. Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered.
"It's important you brat. You need to be able to think! To know when they're manipulating you!"
"Whatever." Thorfinn rolled his eyes, looking away from Askeladd. In a quieter voice he said. "It won't change anything anyways."
Those words froze Askeladd in place, pulling him back to cold garages and stables filled with exotic creatures but never enough food, and most of all his mother's voice, still reciting to him the truth she guarded, even when her mind was long gone.
Hadn't he thought the same, when she told him the truth of this universe? That the last humans escaped earth on the grand ship Artorius. How they built synthetics in their image with a technology so advanced they were indistinguishable from people, and how they were betrayed. A truth erased by history. One no one but his mother and her people bothered to remember.
It did them no good, knowing these things. His mother's status as a true human did not save her from the cold, if anything it made her more vulnerable. No one was coming to save them as the great ship Artorius saved the last of humanity. It was only him, a misshapen, half human, half synthetic atrocity left to defend them both.
Knowing changed nothing, and yet when his mother passed he kept her words alive in his mind. Telling her stories to himself over and over again in the dead of night for fear he'd forget them. Even as he led a very band of the DANEs he hated, as he watched with indifference of the synthetic on synthetic violence they waged (but not against humans, never against humans, not as long as he was captain).
A hopeless legacy, a pointless endeavor. And yet all he had left of his only true parent.
"So cynical," Askeladd clicked his tongue at Thorfinn. "I take it this means you're forfeiting our next duel? Since your loss is predetermined after all."
"What? NO!" Thorfinn wipped his head back to turn his burning glare at Askeladd. "I'll kill you this time! Don't you dare back out!"
"No ten year old is ever going to beat a grown man in a duel." Askeladd sniffs. "But if you really still want it, you'd better stop your yapping and start listening. Failing your test will lower your grades after all, and then you won't get your fight."
"Nuh-uh!" Thorfinn snapped, turning back to his review sheet with new zeal. "I'm getting that duel, just you watch!" Pulling at his text book, he began frantically flipping the pages to find the answers.
"Kids," Askeladd laughed to himself as he watched. So easy to motivate. But at least it looked like Thorfinn had it under control now. Askeladd was free to leave.
It had been a while since he recited his mother's stories, he thought as he turned towards his captain's quarters. He should do it again now he had a space all to himself.
And maybe, one day, he'd tell them to Thorfinn. The boy already carried one hopeless legacy on his back, what was one more?